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Wednesday, November 27

December's Games with Gold brings fans the original Gears
of War game. GoW was one of the first blockbusters for the Xbox360 and it spawned
a fairly large franchise with three further games.

While the third in theserious was arguably the best, the GoW original is a classic game bring some
memorable gaming moments. While the plot was at times completely incomprehensible
the back drop of a word taken over by the locus horde was fairly original.

If you’ve never played GOW, I’d totally recommend you have a
crack, and if you've traded in the original, go back for a nostalgic run
through!

You can download the game to your Xbox 360 from 1 Dec
through the 15th.

Wednesday, November 13

Halo: Spartan Assault is coming to the Xbox One and Xbox 360 this December with a new online Co-op mode that brings the Flood into the fray. But with new content comes new achievements, and below you'll find the achievement lists for Xbox One and Xbox 360. We've broken up the Gamerscore points for which achievements are new to Halo: Spartan Assault, which are exclusive to the Xbox One version, and the original Halo: Spartan Assault achievements from the Windows 8/Windows Phone version making their way over to the console versions.

Wednesday, October 30

Halo Waypoint has let it be known to the world that Halo: Spartan Assault is coming to the Xbox:

Grab your controller and prepare for the Flood; Halo: Spartan Assault is poised to storm living rooms around the world this holiday! Today, 343 Industries in conjunction with Vanguard Games announced that Halo: Spartan Assault will be available worldwide for digital download this December for both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Halo: Spartan Assault for Xbox One and Xbox 360 will pit gamers in a galactic-scale war against a persistent and overwhelming enemy from long ago – the Flood. With over 30 stimulating missions at your fingertips, play longer than ever with the all-new online Co-op mode and the Operation Hydra expansion that delivered an action-packed addition to the single player campaign.

Tuesday, September 24

Sometimes there’s a guy so cool that you just don’t want to
meet just in case he isn’t actually cool. I think Bungie’s Joe Staten might be
one of those guys. Not that he isn’t actually that cool, it’s that he’s that
cool. Cool? Anyways, Joe is leaving Bungie. Cue the boos and hisses!

Rumour has it
he got fired for making Destiny too awesome. Or something. He’s actually leaving with a nice note from Bungie on their homepage.

Here’s State’s leaving note:

Dear community friends,

After fifteen great years at Bungie, from the battlefields
of Myth to the mysteries of Halo and beyond, I'm leaving to tackle new creative
challenges. While this may come as a surprise, fear not. It's been my pleasure
building Destiny these past four years, and after the big reveal this Summer,
our hugely talented team is on track for greatness. I'll be cheering all of
them, with all of you, when the game launches next year. Thank you for your
support of me, and your continued support of Bungie. We couldn't have done it
without you.

Sunday, September 15

Dark Horse has managed to come up with a new ongoing Halo
series, known as Halo: Escalation.

The guts of the story is that the UNSC flagship Infinity is
assigned escort duty for a diplomatic mission between the Arbiter and a
powerful chieftain of the Brute tribes—but when a rogue Covenant group attacks,
it's going to take all the firepower the Spartans have to keep the delegates
alive!

This story is from Christopher Schlerf who was a lead writer
of Halo 4 so this is presumably a pretty official addition to the cannon of the
Halo universe.

Axis Animation have official Vimeo page that's now been set to private which had a fancy version of the trailer which apparently showed the above image.

Obviously there's no word on whether this version was made before the trailer / teaser came out. Axis does a lot of animation for Microsoft and its assorted studios, including the Spartan Ops videos so you know that it was a least at one time a legit video / screenshot.

But really what's in a name? Combat Evolved is a stupid title that marketing people made Bungie throw on to the word Halo. Luckily that game actually lived up to it's promise...

Sunday, August 18

Next Monday, we will release two additional armor mods free of charge for you to enjoy, and we’ll be using a Title Update to deliver them. These will be released one day before the Champions Bundle launches on Tuesday, and you’ll immediately be able to incorporate these new Support Upgrades into your Loadouts and dominate.

Recharge: New Support Upgrade available to all players

Recharge decreases the time it takes for your shields to recharge.

Survivor: New Support Upgrade available to all players

Survivor ejects you out of a vehicle if it’s about to explode.

We hope you enjoy using these complimentary Support Upgrades in your Loadouts starting next Monday. As a reminder, the Champions Bundle will include a sneak peek of the Resistor Tactical Package, which allows players to retain full mobility despite taking fire for a few short moments. This armor mod will eventually be made available to all players in Halo 4 Matchmaking free of charge.

Before we dive into how the Champions Bundle will be showcased in Halo 4 Matchmaking, we’ve got some other changes that are coming in Monday’s update. For starters, the Global Championship online qualifier will be coming to a close, and the Rumble Pit playlist will return as the premiere FFA offering. Based on community feedback, we’ve also made some changes. Rumble Pit will have a total of 15 new voting options including new Slayer game types, new objective game types (King of the Hill and Oddball) and Regicide, which is being consolidated and will now exclusively be available in the Rumble Pit playlist.

The following Slayer and objective game types from the Halo 4 Global Championship playlist will be added to the Rumble Pit offerings:

Haven Oddball

Skyline Rumble BRs

Simplex Rumble BRs

Abandon King of the Hill

Landfall King of the Hill

While the above game types will add variety to the playlist, a Slayer game type will always be present in the first voting slot. As always, we want to know your thoughts on these game types and what else you’d like to see in Rumble Pit. Head over to the Rumble Pit Feedback Thread next week to join the conversation.

In Spartan Ops Matchmaking, we’ll be offering a selection of Forerunner-themed missions:

Wednesday, July 24

We all know Jun got off Reach during the events of Halo: Reach as he was on the same ship as Halsey who turned up in Halo 4. However doubts have lingered till now as to what happened and did he really survive? A Redditor thinks he's found an answer.

Here's the write up on Xbox Live about Commander Palmer if you wish to buy her armour for your XBL avatar. Gosh knows why you would buy it when it costs 320 MS points but that's not the point. The reference to Jun is:

"Once an ODST, Sarah Palmer was hand-picked by former Spartan-III Jun A-266 to be one of the first candidates in the new Spartan IV program. Quickly proving herself during the defense of the UNSC Infinity from a hostile takeover by Insurrectionists, Palmer was soon called upon to lead a Spartan strike team during the historic Battle of Draetheus-V. Now the senior Spartan aboard Infinity, Commander Palmer went on to be instrumental in the recovery of the Master Chief and the defeat of Jul ‘Mdama at Requiem."

Yes, yes, I hear you, the question is when did Jun hand-pick Palmer... Maybe that will be answered in Halo: Initiation.

Also did they just ruin the ending of season 2 of Spartan Ops? Cos I'm pretty sure thye did as the season left on a cliff hanger with Jul alive having snagelled one half of a very important key?

Salta also expands the "Halo" universe with original sounds to complement the musical blueprint of the first trilogy and beyond, combined with a full modern sound production to create a contemporary and classic "Halo" soundtrack.

Saturday, July 13

Got a big date with an A.I.? Have a desire to impress your Commander? Just want to smell fresh after along day smashing Promethean Knight's heads together? Then we literally have a solution for you - Mjolnir by the Chief.

While the Elite by Sanghelli sold well, it alienated most of the UNSC fleet. UNSC Command expects this fresh and floral bouquet will freshen the halls of mess tents and space galleys like no cologne has before.

Spartans Unite! Join Frank O’Connor (Franchise Development Director), Dan Ayoub (Executive Producer), and other 343 Industries guests as they celebrate and discuss the exciting new addition to the “Halo” universe (“Halo: Spartan Assault”), the new comic-book series from Dark Horse Comics (“Halo: Initiation”), along with some “Mega” surprises.

In case Nelson has forgotten what mega means:

So those are some extremely large expectations the Major has set up, don't let us down bro!